10 Best Recovery Bars for Runners

Our guide to the tastiest postrun energy snacks.

We taste-tested dozens of recovery bars to find the best postrun snacks for runners. What we learned: The era of choke-it-down energy bars is over. New options taste better than ever—while still providing the muscle-friendly nutrients your body craves postrun.

Best Baked Good AlternativeHammer Oatmeal Apple Bar
“It’s like eating apple pie,” raved one tester, who issued props for this bar’s moist texture and real-food flavor (thanks to actual organic apples). The bar’s 25 grams of carbohydrates rapidly replenish depleted energy stores, and a touch of iron (9 percent of your DV) preps blood cells for the next workout. hammernutrition.com

Best Mega-Protein BarClif Chocolate Chip Builder’s Bar
Most bars with tons of protein are just dense slabs of chalky paste, but the new Chocolate Chip Builder’s bar has a much smoother consistency. Organic rolled oats and roasted soy beans are sandwiched with a soy cookie that provides 20 tasty grams of protein—making it the ideal snack for big athletes (180 pounds or more) or a meal replacement for smaller-bodied runners. clifbar.com

Best PBPerfect Foods Peanut Butter Bar
If your recovery routine includes scooping peanut butter from the jar, try this portable version. The Perfect Foods Bar blends peanut butter with organic honey and powdered fruits and vegetables for a snack rich in protein (18 grams), carbs (25 grams), and potassium (13 percent of your DV)—an electrolyte that’s lost during sweaty workouts. Unlike most energy bars, which are shelf-stable, this one requires refrigeration. perfectfoodsbar.com

Best TextureKIND Almond & Coconut Bar
Nothing mealy or chalky here: Made with whole almonds and big coconut flakes bound together by honey, the KIND bar tastes like a pastry-shop treat. Its 13 grams of fat are mostly monounsaturated (the “good” kind that helps combat heart disease), and the carb-to-protein ratio (20 grams and 4 grams, respectively) replenishes spent glycogen stores and gives muscle a jumpstart on recovery. kindsnacks.com

Best Homemade TasteKate’s Stash Bar
This cake of seeds and grains tastes like something that came out of a real kitchen—not a factory. Organic chocolate and peanut butter lend rich flavor, while 5 grams of fiber help curb postrun hunger pangs. katesrealfood.com

Best Gluten-FreeBumble Bar Chunky Cherry
Like Greece’s popular sesame candies, gluten-free and grain-free Bumble Bars turn sesame seeds into a bar, except this one’s sweetened not with honey, but agave (which is 1 1/2 times sweeter than table sugar and contributes to the bar’s 18 grams of carbs). Seeds and cherries provide antioxidants (including 40 percent of your DV for Vitamin E) to boost the immune system during tough training periods, and 5 grams of protein rebuild muscle. bumblebar.com